Pakistan says 3 soldiers killed in NATO strike

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - NATO helicopters from Afghanistan attacked a militant-infested border region of Pakistan on Thursday, killing three Pakistani soldiers, a Pakistani official said, a raid that is certain to raise tensions.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan â€” Pakistan closed a vital transit link for NATO supplies for the war in Afghanistan on Thursday in apparent retaliation for an attack by coalition helicopters on a Pakistani security post hours earlier.

Trucks and oil tankers were stopped at the border post of Torkham just north of Peshawar and it was unclear when the post would reopen, a Pakistani security official said.

A closure of the crossing through which NATO and American troops receive most of their non-lethal equipment is rare, and signaled a downturn in the military relationship between Pakistan and the United States just three months before the Obama administration takes stock of progress in Afghanistan.

A NATO helicopter attacked a border post at Mandati Kandaw, a town close to the capital of Parachinar in the Kurram area of Pakistanâ€™s tribal region, at 5 a.m. on Thursday, the official said. Three paramilitary soldiers of the Frontier Corps were killed, and three others injured, he said. Another border post at Kharlachi in the Kurram region was struck a few hours later, the official added.

The two posts are about 15 miles apart and border Paktia Province in Afghanistan.

The incident occurred as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, was in Islamabad for a previously scheduled visit. He was expected to meet the head of the Pakistani military, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, later on Thursday, American officials said.

The helicopter attacks into Pakistani territory Thursday came after American military helicopters launched three airstrikes last weekend killing more than 50 people suspected of being members of the Haqqani network of militants.

American officials in Afghanistan tried to temper Pakistani anger about those attacks, saying that the helicopters entered Pakistani airspace on only one of the three raids, and had acted in self-defense after militants fired rockets at an allied base just across the border in Afghanistan.

American military commanders say they have become increasingly frustrated at the tempo of deadly attacks against American troops in Afghanistan by the Haqqani militants who shelter in Pakistanâ€™s tribal region.

A spokesman at NATO headquarters in Afghanistan said the incident was under investigation.

And how long are they gonna halt those NATO supplies, ultimately they'd come under pressure from US of not cooperating. They can't do more than protests, like anyone gonna listen to them. Retaliation will mean trouble.

But then the US is no believer in international niceties and so what will Pakistan do, if they do what Armitage has promised?

Brains was always in short supply in Pakistan it appears. The only brain was their sole Nobel Prize Winner and that too they claim he is no Muslim. He is an Ahmediyya and so a non Muslim is their sole brain!!

In the second raid conducted today, Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) helicopters have reportedly shelled the area of Peesha Kandaw in Mata Sangar of Upper Kurram Agency.
Initial reports suggest that choppers engaged targets inside Pakistan territory, but no immediate casualties have been reported.
Choppers earlier struck a checkpoint in Mandato Kandaho, which is about five kilometres inside Pakistan. The attack claimed three lives and left three soldiers wounded.
Last week two Nato helicopters killed 30 insurgents on Pakistani soil after a rare manned pursuit across the border from Afghanistan, Nato forces said on Sunday.
Government slams Nato air raids
The Foreign Office has reacted to Natoâ€™s violation of Pakistan airspace and said that Nato and Isaf must respect their mandate and that violations will not be allowed by Pakistan. The Foreign Office also stated that Pakistanâ€™s sovereignty will not be compromised and that it will not allow its soil to be used for terror acts.
Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Owais Ghani slammed the earlier attack on the security check post by Nato choppers, saying that Nato raids are an assault on Pakistanâ€™s sovereignty. â€We will have to reconsider policy on war on terrorâ€ he said.
â€ The strike was an attack on the sovereignty of Pakistan and its people. How could an army with latest technology make such a mistake by targeting a security checkpoint?â€ he said.
Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said Pakistan will not tolerate any such attacks on its security forces. Speaking to the media outside the parliament house in Islamabad, Malik said the government has lodged a strong protest against the first attack.
Malik said that after these attacks Pakistan will have to think whether Nato considers it a friend or a foe. He also said that Pakistan will go beyond protests to condemn the cross-border attacks.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira spoke to the media earlier today and said that Pakistan knows how to defend itself.
â€œThe government has warned elements against making mistakes. The nation is with the armed forces in case such attacks occurâ€ he said.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has taken up the Nato attacks on Pakistani territory with the visiting CIA Chief Leon Panetta. Sources says the CIA chief is trying to convince Pakistanâ€™s military leader*ship for an all-out operation in North Waziristan.
Pakistan has condemned the cross-border air strikes by Nato helicopters pursuing militants into its territory. Nato said it was investigating Thursdayâ€™s incident, but has said previously it has the right to self-defence.
Pakistan halts Nato supplies to Afghanistan
Pakistan shut down the main land route for Nato supplies into Afghanistan on Thursday. Express 24/7 correspondent Iftikhar Firdous said that the supplies have been stopped due to security concerns in the area and not because of the cross border Nato raids.
Nato and the Pakistani government said they were investigating the reported incident in the Kurram district of Pakistanâ€™s tribal belt, which Washington has branded an al Qaeda headquarters and hub of militants fighting in Afghanistan.
â€œWe have suspended Nato supply trucks for the time being due to security reasons,â€ an official in Pakistanâ€™s Frontier Corps paramilitary unit told AFP in the northwestern city of Peshawar on condition of anonymity.
Two officials at the Torkham border crossing in Pakistanâ€™s northwestern Khyber district and a US diplomat confirmed that Nato convoys were not being allowed to cross.